How Many Pyramids Does One Man Need?

[Minimalist]

Neither of which was the purpose of an Egyptian pyramid.

Boru

Ok then, what was the purpose? I guess I am wrong in reading about how they were monuments to be houses for the dead in the afterlife? That they would bury even slaves and pets? That their organs would be put in jars? All the gods depicted on the walls and the anthropomorphic animal/human deities would guard the entrances to protect the tombs from theft. 

They were monuments to superstition, very ingenious sure, very beautiful and artful, but monuments to an afterlife and a vain human attempt to gain immortality.

As with Rome and Greece, when discussing why the Egyptians did anything one has to define the time period.  The inscription of the Pyramid Texts does not appear until the Pharaoh Unas at the end of the 5th Dynasty.  Unas' pyramid was well decorated but



not so well built.

The Giza Pyramids were much better constructed but have all the internal decoration of a NY city subway tunnel.  One has to factor in the obvious differences and also allow for the fact that religion, like everything else, evolves.